Former Reserve Bank of India of India Governor Raghuram Rajan would be the ideal choice to head the United States’ Federal Reserve, said financial magazine Barron’s Asia.
“Nowhere on the shortlist of potential candidates to lead the Federal Reserve is the current star among the world’s central bankers – someone who oversaw a sharp drop in inflation, the stabilisation of a currency and a 50% jump in stock prices,” an article said.
Barron’s announced its pick as US President Donald Trump is set to name his choice for the country’s central bank chief on Thursday. Trump’s choice could take the central bank in a different direction. Some of the names from his short-list could move to raise interest rates faster, which could then hit markets, according to The Washington Post.
Rajan’s three-year term as RBI governor ended on September 4, 2016. He is currently the Katherine Dusak Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the Booth School of Business, University of Chicago. At 40, he was the youngest to become the chief economist at the International Monetary Fund.
Raghuram Rajan shot to fame three years after he presented a paper at an annual gathering of economists and bankers in the US in 2005, in which he predicted a financial crisis. He was not taken seriously at the time, but was proved right three years later when the financial crisis hit the US.
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